Status: Finished

Mixed Feelings of Elation

Chapter 35

Neon walked through the aisles of the small grocery store, making her way to the check out counter. Her basket was full of foods she knew her band mates liked. They would be coming over in a couple of days to work more on the new album. They're practice the day before had gone well. All the songs had been picked and placed to music. They just needed to clean everything and practice. Because they were coming over, Neon needed to stock up her fridge. She was planning on going to the doctor the next day; she just needed to make an appointment. She had yet to take a pregnancy test nor had she bought one yet but she was about to.

The wheels of her cart squeaked as she walked to the one of the two checkout counters. The small Italian woman who always worked there smiled at Neon as she placed her groceries on the counter. As she rang them up, Neon looked around the counter for a stand containing pregnancy tests. There was no other area in the store that had them; Neon checked. She saw no tiny boxes of pregnancy tests on the counter and mentally cursed. She just wanted to get the test and find out the inevitable: that she wasn't pregnant.

"Um, do you have pregnancy tests here, by any chance?" Neon asked.

She never thought she would be asking that.

The woman put the package of frozen pizza down, looking at Neon with that sparkle in her eyes that she got when she saw Neon and Alex together.

"One moment," the woman said, Italian accent strong.

Neon watched her walk to the backroom. She was glad she decided to find the test here. If she had gone to a gas station or convenient store, she would have had to face the looks she would no doubt get from whoever was working behind the counter. Even worse, it could have been an RxN fan behind the counter.

The woman returned to the counter and rung up three pregnancy tests.

"You take all three. If they are positive, come to me. I give you something for morning sickness," the woman said in her slightly broken English.

That was another plus to going to this grocery store; the woman who worked there was always so nice.

"I will. Thank you," Neon smiled.

The woman smiled, finished ringing up Neon's groceries and bid Neon farewell. Neon waved to the woman as she walked out of the store and to her convertible. She put the groceries on the floorboard of her backseat, keeping the bag with the pregnancy tests in it with her.

She wouldn't let them out of her sight till she had taken them.

Neon slid into the driver's seat, starting the car and pulling out of the small parking lot. On any normal day, Neon would have walked to the grocery store. The amount of groceries she needed today would have been too hard to walk home with. She had opted for using her car to hold it all. Not to mention the constant sickness she was going through made her uneasy about walking anywhere.

Within minutes, Neon was parked in her driveway and pulling groceries out of her car. She stacked as many bags on her arms she could, keeping the bag with the tests in her mouth. With her foot, she shut her car door and strolled up the pavement to her door. She struggled to get her keys out of the pocket of her skinny jeans, managing to pull them out and unlock her front door. Neon rushed into her house to the kitchen so she could put the groceries away. The door shut on its own. Most of Neon's groceries were frozen; they only took a matter of minutes to through into the freezer haphazardly.

She was anxious to take the pregnancy tests. No matter what the test said, she knew she couldn't have kids. But she couldn't help the small glimmer of hope rushing through her system. She wanted to the test to tell her she was pregnant even if she knew it couldn't happen. It would make her happy for at least a little while.

Neon tossed the last of the non-freezer items into one of the cabinets. Grabbing the bag containing the pregnancy tests off the counter where she placed them, she pulled all three out. Her eyes glanced over each of the boxes. She didn't know which one to take. She didn't know which one would work best. She didn't know anything about pregnancy tests.

It wasn't something she cared to learn about. She vaguely remembered someone giving a presentation on pregnancy tests in Health when they had the lesson on reproduction but she hadn't paid any attention to them. Looking back, she probably should have.

Neon picked a random test from the three and tossed the other two back in the bag. She would take one now and take the others later.

"How am I supposed to do this?" Neon mumbled to herself, inspecting the box.

To her delight, a set of instructions were written on the box. The process seemed simple. She could either pee on the stick or pee in a cup and dip the stick in. There was nothing complicated about any of that. But the timing had to be right or she would get a false reading.

Not that it mattered.

Neon grabbed one of the small plastic cups from her cabinet and brought it with her to the bathroom alongside the pregnancy test. She did as the box said, peeing in the cup and dipping the stick in for five seconds. She laid the stick on the sink. In three minutes, she would get her reading. Three very long minutes.

Neon thought she was done with tests when she left high school. She never imagined she would be sitting on the edge of her bathtub, waiting for the results of her pregnancy test. It was supposed to be Arpeggio in this situation. It was always supposed to be Arpeggio. Neon could see herself trying to calm Arpeggio down while waiting for the results of a pregnancy test.

And here Neon was, all by herself, anxiously waiting. She didn't want anyone there with her. She wanted to do this on her own. It was important to her to handle this by herself. If the test came out positive and she had anyone with her, their hopes would raise like everyone's rose the day before and she would have to bring them back to reality. It was much easier bringing herself to reality than her friends. She didn't enjoy crushing them.

Neon tapped her nails against the outer edge of the tub. The last time she was this nervous was when she was waiting for her senior essay to be graded. She couldn't sleep for weeks because she was worried for the grade. The end of the year essay had been the most important grade of the year. If any student failed the essay, they failed for the whole year.

She had every right to be nervous then. Now she didn't. She knew what would happen, what the test would say. But she couldn't help it.

Neon looked at the clock. Her three minutes were up. She shot off the edge of the bathtub and grabbed the pregnancy test from the counter. Taking a breath, she read over her results. A feeling of elation washed over her. Tears of happiness perched in her eyes.

Reality set in quickly, replacing her elation with sadness. Tears rolled down her eyes. Neon sunk to the floor, sobbing. The test fell from her limp hand, result side up. If any band members were to walk in, they would see the word "pregnant" written clear as day across the screen.
♠ ♠ ♠
Thank you to rivals are insane, tq6776, RainbowSkittles1551, smarties_178, Wasted Ambition, superfina192, ChasingTheRain, rissakey, hellomydarling, Aliyah-loves-A7x, and Ambehh'.
And thank you to any new subscribers.
I hope you enjoyed.
Comment/Subscribe?
xoxo
Lyric-Celeste